The Plan
by Ace Hart Hunter
Summary: [Ocean's 11] Slash implications. Observation and calculation is Saul's thing, and Danny's a moron... maybe.


_Title: The Plan_

_Rating: PG_

_Pairings: Danny/Tess, Past Danny/Rusty, Implied Linus/Rusty._

_Saul just isn't sure how this is going to work out at all._

_( Originally written for the Livejournal Community Oceanfic)_

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Saul was all about observation and calculation. He had to be. In his line of 'work' one missed calculation could get everyone caught. So, by all rights he had to notice everything around him. 

Variables were important. You needed to know exactly how everything was going to work out, and how things were going to change before they changed. Saul liked to think of himself as a prophet every now and then. Unfortunately he still had no luck with betting on the dogs.

Now though, the variables were seriously out of whack, and they'd be in deep shit if they didn't come up with the proper formula for pulling off the heist. Deep shit because Benedict was not the kind of guy to play games.

As far as he could tell the two biggest variables were Tess and Linus.

Tess was Danny's weakness and that was dangerous. She could ruin this whole plan and cost them all jail time…. or worse knowing Benedict and his goons. Danny was willing to do anything to get her back, anything. And that was bad because he was their leader (in name at least) and he was the man with the ideas and the connections.

It was also bad because it annoyed Rusty.

Rusty didn't like Tess to begin with. Danny had been Rusty's first and as far as Saul knew no one had ever stolen anything from Rusty before Tess came along. So Rusty was angry, and more likely to make mistakes. That was even worse than Danny getting distracted because Rusty was their detail man, the man with the plan, the one who kept them safe. No job involving Rusty ever got anyone caught.

As it was, Saul was worried. With their two main players so distracted they were not exactly in prime form for stealing $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos with more security then the pentagon and section 51 combined.

Then there was Linus.

They'd all been sceptical when Danny insisted they bring this kid in. He was a rookie after all. He'd never done anything but pick pockets. But Danny was confident so everyone else was fine with it immediately.

Except for Saul and Rusty.

The only reason Saul didn't like it was because Rusty didn't. Rusty was the one with the instincts for this. He knew when to bet big and when to fold. And Linus was a lowly two of clubs that he desperately wanted to discard.

He was constantly testing the kid. Taunting him. Doing everything in his power to make him back down from the job, to go home to Chicago. It was obvious that he didn't like the kid and everyone could see it.

Except the kid.

He obviously had no idea what to make of Rusty. The smooth operator that his father and Danny spoke so highly of. The only one who'd never spent more than one night in jail at a time. The one who knew everything all the time and who had more connections than the Internet.

So Saul thought that Danny had to be insane. He was placing the only person on the team with the know-how to keep them out of trouble in a position where he had so many distractions he couldn't think straight.

Saul was polishing his pocket watch right now and watching Danny and Rusty arguing in quiet voices. He heard the word 'Tess' every now and then and he could here the irritation in Rusty's voice if nothing else. The kid was in the room too and he was pretending to practise his lines in the mirror but he was constantly glancing over at Rusty. 'Glancing' was being too generous though because he was really checking him out.

The card shark obviously noticed because he was flicking his eyes at Linus in irritation every now and then. But the looks were much softer than they had been a week ago, and Saul suspected that they were mostly for show now than any sort of real annoyance.

Maybe Danny really did know what he was doing… for once.

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_So… yeah… That's my offering…. Umm… comments?_

_Push the purple button! _


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